CLUB SEEKS TO GET KIDS TUNED IN; CLASS TO GET HAM RADIO STATION.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer

Hoping to interest young people in ham radios, the Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club is working to install short-wave equipment and a weather station in a science class at Valley View Middle School.

The amateur radio station will enable students to chat with enthusiasts from all over the country and to help track weather conditions for the National Weather Service.

Ham radio operators throughout the world provide important help - for example, after a disaster, such as an earthquake - but is declining in popularity as a hobby, club members said, so they hope to encourage a new generation to get training and experience.

``Kids love it when they can contact people from around the world or someone around the block,'' said John Beckers, president of Simi Settlers. ``It's satisfying to us to help get them familiar with the equipment, and it's great to see their faces light up when they talk to someone from far away.''

The radio system is expected to be completed this summer, in time for the start of the next school year. It will include two computers, several ham radios and a Peet Bros. Weather Station that sends data to the NWS through an automatic position-reporting system.

Brad Swopes, a science teacher at Valley View Middle School and the adviser for the new club, said the idea began when seven students expressed interest in getting ham radio licenses.

They contacted the Settlers, and the idea of bringing an amateur radio station and the weather station to the classrooms was born.

Swopes said the new equipment will enable students to contact people from all over the world, which he hopes will spur an interest in geography. The system also will enhance classroom lessons on weather, and students will even be able to chat with astronauts orbiting the Earth in a space shuttle.

The equipment also could be used during during an emergency. Emergency-preparedness coordinators routinely include ham radio operators in their planning for recovery from natural disasters.

``We're always simulating disasters here, trying to prepare for an earthquake,'' Swopes said. ``If there is another one here, this would be another way for the school to communicate with the outside world. In the last earthquake, it was the ham radio people who were right there first, sharing information about dangers and where the problems were.''

Beckers said the school installation will be technologically sophisticated. A position-reporting satellite could even track the whereabouts of a car through a computer.

He noted that ham radio operators were sending instant messages long before the Internet popularized e-mail.

Beckers said club members would like to create similar radio labs in other east Ventura County schools, but have their hands full now with just one.

Club members are giving most materials from their own workshops and hope to get donations to buy whatever they might lack.